Never Hurts to Have a Back-Up Plan
October 12, 2011 -- On Tuesday, October 12, thousands of Blue and Orange Line Metro riders had to find alternate ways home when a man was struck by a train at Clarendon Metro station resulting in stations between Rosslyn and Ballston being shut down for several hours.
Back in August when an earthquake hit the DC Metro area, commutes were made longer when Metro decided to run trains at slower speeds while they made sure there wasn't any track damage after the quake.
So what do you do if your usual commute involves taking the Metro train, but the train is temporarily shut-down or running at a much slower pace? Avoid finding yourself stuck and instead devise a back-up plan for getting to where you need to go.
Know which ART or Metrobus routes you can take from work to get home or as close as you can get to it. Become familiar with tools such as ART Point-to-Point that lets you plug in a starting and ending point and creates a personalized bus schedule for you.
Google Maps can also help you figure out how to get home using various modes of transit and can also provide walking directions.
Become familiar with Capital Bikeshare and where stations are located. After the earthquake many decided to use the bikesharing system instead of waiting in long lines for the train.
In the end, we all just want to be able to get home. It's always good to be prepared and have a plan for when the unexpected occurs.
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